​Turkish PM consults top officials over proposed safe zone

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu huddled with his aides and senior military officials on Tuesday to take a close look at the “safe zone" plan, put forward by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the 69th UN Assembly.

However, a “No Fly Zone”, which goes hand in hand with a safe zone by securing it’s protection from any hostile attack, requires a UN resolution. The key officials agreed that Turkey should unilaterally set up the safety zone at the border on its own if the US-led coalition does not approve the plan, which aims to help thousands of Syrian Kurds who escaped from the battleground into Turkey.

Turkey insists on imposing a No-Fly Zone over the secure area in order to disable the Syrian government’s forces through air strikes. However, a no-fly zone, which is required for establishing a secure area in northern Syria, needs the support of a UN resolution.

Turkey is believed to be setting up such a zone in line with the UN resolution No. 2170, which calls on all UN member states to mobilize to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, the financing and other support to extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

THE SAFE ZONE WILL BE MULTICULTURAL

If Turkey establishes a hub for refugees fleeing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, this area will include Arabic-populated Tal Abyad and the heavily Kurdish-populated Kobane in northern Syria as well as regions which cannot be controlled by the regime forces, according to sources close to the meeting.

PROTECTION NEEDED FOR  SAFE ZONE AND TURKEY’S SOVEREIGN TERRITORY

The recent news reports over the secure area said it is expected to be between five to 25 kilometers deep on the 910-kilometer-long Turkey-Syria border. However, the depth from the border to the Tomb of Suleiman Shah is 38 kilometers. The security of the Tomb, the sole cross-border territory in Syria under the international law, is another concern of the government. Arabic tribal sources said that militants from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have been massed around the tomb of Suleiman Shah for three days.

“Turkish troops could be used to help set up a safe zone in Syria, if there was an international agreement to establish such a haven for refugees fleeing from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL,” said President Erdogan on his way back to Turkey after his meetings on the sideline of the annual UN Assembly.

An upsurge in the unrest posing risk to domestic security has also been debated in the meeting, which was also attended by Turkish army chief, General Necdet Özel and all forces commanders. The army chief said that eight battalions have been sent to Şırnak, Hakkari and Suruç, the Southeast, to prevent civil unrest while Lt. Gen. Erdal Öztürk, the Head of Operations Department of the General Staff, briefed on the latest developments about the influx of Syrian refugees and the civilian war in Syria.

During the two-hour briefing, Lt. General Öztürk elaborated on ISIL’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the areas under siege by the Free Syrian Army and Syria’s Democratic Union Party, or PYD's, areas, controlled by Assad’s regime. Hulusi Akar, the Commander of Land Forces, who inspected security measures along the border last week, submitted a report over the precautions and his inspections in the region.